I lift my lamp beside the golden door
- frida@artyardbklyn.org
- Jul 25
- 12 min read
What a splendid Summer Session 2025! We had an amazing series of intensive artmaking sessions. The level of focus, and the integrity of approach with which participants created was awesome. We had a sense of humor and joy ever present even when (especially when?) we took on challenging concepts. I could not think of a better way to usher in the AYB Year of Migration.
On Monday, July 21st, teaching artist Iviva Olenick introduced the concept of monuments to immigration, starting by referencing the proximal Statue of Liberty, and asking participants to consider the Statue’s meaning in a contemporary context of deportations and military response to anti-ICE and immigration policy protests in LA.
Iviva shared images of monument designs and public sculptures for inspiration, including a monument to Shirley Chisholm designed by Olalekan B. Jeyifous and Amanda Williams; Kehinde Wiley’s Rumors of War, which was temporarily installed in Times Square, and photos of LA protests and Brad Lander being arrested while trying to protect migrants’ rights. Finally, Iviva ended with reading the part of Emma Lazarus’s The New Colossus poem, which is engraved on the Statue of Liberty’s base.
Iviva explains: “Through discussion, the concept for designing a monument broadened to include personal memorials as well as public monuments. Participants thought deeply about their designs, starting with sketching and embracing a range of media—cut paper, collage, watercolor, markers and oil pastels.
Use arrows to scroll through images of artists at work
Designs, which each artist presented as if at a professional proposal panel, included Flo’s re-imagined Statue of Liberty where a sheet draped over the statue replaces her body, showing her absence as if to suggest a lack of new immigrants to NYC. The back of the sculpture had an edited version of the original. The draped front served also as a screen for projections.
Florian Velayandom Neven du Mont, Monument Design
Nissi created a rose pink fork with curled tines to represent an homage to the hungry as a potential site for food donations and retrievals.
Jacob thought about his southern Italian heritage and designed a colosseum with Roman goddesses which respond to the tides, sometimes submerging the sculptures in water.
Jacob Rath, Monument Design
Abriel (bob) envisioned a public piece celebrating community, complete with sound component, bird and bug attracting plants, an operational sundial and performance space.
Meridith proposed incorporating the torch lamp from Ms Liberty done up in rainbow colors to represent inclusion and diversity, with welcoming words for AYB (as seen from inside our wonderful studio at BWAC).
Luna also reimagined Ms Liberty, casting her as an indigenous woman with a feathered headdress in place of a crown. John reimagined Ms Liberty as a Mexican woman holding a newborn baby to signify the dreams of immigrants to make better lives for their families here, as well as a hope for thoughtful sharing of culture which we thought could be interpreted as a neon bar sign!
Luna Velayandom Neven du Mont, Monument Design and John Brentwood, Monument Design
Simone represented Patrice Lumumba, former prime minister of newly decolonized Congo, who was assassinated for his decolonial beliefs, which included the end of foreign control of natural resources and precious minerals.
Mia designed an ode to ivy and continuity, which included a pile of deconstructed ivy.
Mia Lew, Monument Design
Evelyn recalled the turtle sculptures in Boston, which they used to climb on visits as a child, and designed a circular monument of hands holding each other, with berries in the center, also meant for public interaction.
Evelyn Beliveau, Monument Design
I (Iviva) designed a memorial to forgotten, threatened or fallen species in the shape of a circular tree branch in red, orange, purple and black, the colors of the sky the week the forest fires deteriorated New York’s air quality. Leaves are added to the sculpture as donors purchase one, which they name for the plant they’re memorializing in the memory of a lost loved one.
Iviva Olenick, Monument Design
“Week three of “Hold Dear” couldn’t have concluded better. It was a class we all eagerly jumped into, those new and those that have been with us the whole time.”, explains Teaching Artist Leni Silva.
“For some it was their first time even working with clay and they managed to create a couple of pieces. Every class I have expressed tremendous gratitude to everyone for opening up and allowing us into their world. Watching people add their work to both doll houses brought it to life especially seeing how other pieces interact with one another telling the stories of ART YARD BKLYN artists.”
Teaching Artist Jacob Rath adds: “In our third class, we continued to make artwork for our exhibition "Hold Dear." There were no new prompts for our final week: instead our goal was to finish any work that hadn't been completed yet. We also worked on making more artwork that can hang on the walls of the dollhouse, since we have a good amount of furniture.
Use arrows to scroll photos of folks at work on Hold Dear
We had an overfilled class, which created a fun and friendly atmosphere. Some notable pieces from this session included Leah's mannequin that their family left behind, Quentin's totem sculpture he had to leave behind, and Ajani made an entire loft bed/desk configuration with a scrunched up blanket. Mia made several objects (several posters and a pencil case), and it seemed as if she used this class to contemplate which belongings of hers she wanted to take with her to college in the fall, and which she wanted to leave behind. Cammi, Elias, and Cindy all painted objects that they had made in previous classes, which really made their artwork come alive.
Use arrows to scroll photos of Hold Dear zine pages
Evelyn made two paintings of objects for the dollhouses that we want to use as covers for the zine component of the project.
Evelyn writes: “On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of making watercolor paintings for the covers of the zines for Hold Dear. I arranged some of the objects that participants had made for each dollhouse--one room of things left behind and one room of things taken with us--and painted from observation. It was lovely both to reflect on the objects whose stories I'd heard and to closely look at the craftsmanship of each piece, from Meridith's paper piano to Lizzenka's text textured clay teddy bear.
This work also dovetails with my current project outside of AYB, painting from life with miniature dioramas and exploring plausible but slightly uncanny relationships of scale.”
Miniature Synchronicity seems to be following us as we work on this project!
Simone was excited to find Welcome to Moominhouse exhibition at the Grand Army branch of Brooklyn Public Library,
Abriel (Bob) stumbled across a Doll House shop on the Upper East Side,
Quentin had a NY Times alert mentioning a fellow who makes cardboard models of iconic NYC buildings,
I (Meridith) came home after a day of Hold Dear art making to spy a little house perched on my neighbors fence!
Rashidah made everyone tiny stamp design stickers of their work created last week in class with Mia!
(Images shown in that order. Photos by the AYB artist who spotted them for the most part):
With great excitement we jumped back into our exploration of poetry with AYB Artist Adji Ngathe Kebe. We coupled this collaborative discussion with a fascinating comparative analysis of Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1485-86 and Harmonia Rosales, Birth of Oshun, 2017.
Adji shares: “I struggled with Thursday’s lesson. The lesson plan was challenging because I wasn’t sure my ideas were cohesive. It also didn’t follow the typical structure of my lessons. We started the lesson by analyzing themes in two poems by Warsan Shire, "Assimilation” and “Trying to Swim with God.” It was necessary to break the poems down in this manner so we can begin to understand the skeletons of poems. What makes a piece of art or poetry work? What message is the poet/artist trying to convey to us? Once we have this understanding, we’re able to recreate it by employing the same techniques. We start to notice the series of skills/techniques an artist is using. We broke down “The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli in a similar manner. We looked at the foreground, background, composition, themes of the painting, and much more.
In both, “Assimilation,” and “Trying to Swim with God,” participants noticed themes of death/rebirth, motherhood, the body, gender, immigration, and assimilation. Many spoke about the depiction of motherhood as non-gender specific. We also spoke about the immigrant’s struggle to assimilate as an act of survival. The discussions were incredible! They were thoughtful, and illuminating. The poems and art work produced as a result were even better.
Jacob recreated the “Birth of Venus,” in a Russian Avant Garde style. It was humorous and a very unique take. His poem employed the technique of repetition and questioning to show vulnerability in his identity and relationships.
Jacob Rath, Rebirth
Luna and Khalid created work with a front and back. The front contained the art, while the back had the poems. Luna works in threes whether it’s three separate drawings within the same sheet or three different poems. Her use of pastels was so remarkable, it inspired Ajani’s lesson the following day. Khalid compared the experience of love to that of unemployment. The ability to create a metaphor out of two seemingly distinct experiences shows a strong understanding of language and how it can be used.
Luna Velayandom Neven du Mon, Rebirth and Kahlid T. Sumner, Rebirth
Delphine shows a similar prowess and mastery of language in her poems. She uses a variety of techniques from alliteration, repetition, and a clear rhyme scheme.
Evelyn created two pieces and in both, her mastery of color theory, is evident. Her paintings always look sensual, and harmonious. Even if the subject of the painting is full of tension, it’s not noticed in the final product.
Evelyn Beliveau, Rebirth
This absence of tension is evident in Mia’s work as well. Her use of watercolor is so effortless. She has a strong identity as an artist. Mia’s work is easily recognizable, which is genuinely commendable at such a young age.
Mia Lew, Rebirth
Leah’s painting was the only artwork without color. How she managed to make charcoal look like brush strokes is beyond me. Her poem was also the shortest, but it was precise, which made it powerful.
Cammie’s was similar in precision. She mentioned she wasn’t very good at poetry, and proceeded to write/read aloud a fantastic poem. It was further proof to me; we don’t have an accurate perception of our own skills, and what we’re capable of.
TJ had similar concerns about her ability to write a great poem and she ended up writing a poem that was subversive in structure and use of numbers.
TJ Edgar, Rebirth
Kevin’s use of pastels gets better and better with every piece of artwork he creates. The blending of complimentary colors like orange and blue is done really successfully in the piece.
My own (Adji) and Ajani’s pieces were similar in color and content to a certain extent. Ajani focused on the root of the self or multiple selves being grounded in the earth. They wrote a poem about coming to terms with the multiple expressions of themselves and discerning between what’s authentic to themselves and what can be left behind. Similarly, my work is grounded in the root in who we are – the soul.
Adji Ngathe Kebe, Rebirth (poem in progress)
This was a challenging class, but as I’m going through the work produced, I’m blown away by the results. Everyone did a stellar job and I’m excited for the fall.”
Evelyn adds: “I was delighted by Adji's lesson on the poetry of Warsan Shire and the iconic Birth of Venus painting by Sandro Botticelli. Like in Ajani's lesson the next day on Jacob Lawrence, we had the opportunity to dive into the mechanics of the art forms at hand and discuss how elements of composition function. I loved the ideas that arose from bringing together the contemporary poems and the Renaissance painting, with themes of water, death and rebirth, the body, and boundaries (pushing them, crossing them, hitting against them) showing up in discussions and in the art and poetry created during the session.
Leah's expressive, gestural charcoal drawing brought in ideas of lineage and individuality, as well as the pearl created through repeated encasing that we discussed in our group. Kevin's mother-and-child pastel drawing made striking use of his signature bold blue gradients. I made two reinterpretations of the Birth of Venus: one an attempt to imagine how a woman born of sea foam might actually look as she's tossed up on shore, and the other a take on self-reinvention that places a transmasculine figure in the position of Venus, with another hand offering a pen to write his own story rather than a robe to cover up.”
The serious business of writing poetry
We had a full house for our final meeting of Summer Session 2025! Everyone brought treats to share, it was a feast indeed as Teaching Artist Ajani Russell presented a short history of the life of Jacob Lawrence and analyzed several of his works with the class.
Ajani summarizes and analyses: “I asked students to think about their personal migration stories - places they have moved from and to, specific elements they remember from their journeys, integral landmarks and visceral senses.
As usual AYB Artists interpreted this prompt in a myriad of ways with pastels. There was a range of style choices in density and leaving negative space which gave each work specific weights and feelings. The variety allowed us to move from macro to micro - showing all the places someone has been versus one single place someone had traveled to.
Evelyn commented that the works demonstrated great essentializing- including only the most important details of the subject to make it legible, which is a skill needed for abstraction. They also said the collection was good at exploring and breaking down how art functions.
Simone, Jazz and Rashidah’s pieces were modular and interactive collages.
Flo and Luna played with different perspectives of the same scenes which Simone described as “sibling telepathy”.
Flo and Luna Velayandom Neven du Mon, Personal Migration
Rosanne’s piece is lively and some said you can hear how vibrant it is.
Jules work is reminiscent of Faith Ringgold’s works in the movement of the subjects and her composition.
Jules Lorenzo, Personal Migration
Mia’s work reminded Leah of French Impressionist August Renoir because of its softness and described it as nourishing, saturated with a soft palate.
Mia Lew, Personal Migration
The scenes of New York- riding a bike (Mia), the scent man with his table on the street (Neah) were very familiar to many in the room.
Adji mixed imagery from both Senegal and NYC seamlessly.
Bob channeled Jacob Lawrence color palette with great success.
Abriel (bob) Gardner, Personal Migration l & ll
TJ creates a crowd scene evocative of Jacob Lawrence's - symbolic and lively.
Our prolific Mia utilized pastels like watercolor really manipulating the medium in unique ways.
Iris’s landscape reminded Rashidah of Bob Ross with its tight well-realized composition, and made her reminisce that how, as a child, she wanted to be like Bob Ross when she grew up.
Iris Zacarias, Personal Migration l & ll
Cindy’s works showed captured the terror of night time boarder crossing.
Leah's triptych called to mind the work of Leonora Carrington.
Kevin, Jacob, John and Gem all employed personal symbols to tell their story in a powerful fashion.
Reg said that the perspective of the train in Delphine’s piece brought a few lines of a poem he had written to mind:
As train lights fall on rails like lava
As grizzly rats pass before rolling guillotines
~ Reg Lewis
The day was amplified as everyone claimed their “artistic lineage”- adding to and defining the pool of artists that inspires them.”
May the remainder of your summer be filled with inspiration and art!
See you in September in AYB Advanced Studio in person at our studio at BWAC and on zoom, and for AYB Art Matters in our partnership schools!
🩵❤️💜💙🧡💛
Beautiful monument designs especially liked Anissa’s piece with the curly fork. I love how at AYB we are able to have conversations about difficult and serious topics while still keeping that sense of support and positivity both through community and through art making. I think that is of crucial importance especially today. The Dolls House pieces kept getting better and better each week! I could imagine the satisfaction of making miniature items and never losing inspiration. So cool reading about different ways the Dolls House theme showed up in different ways with the communities daily life. I also came across a store that had the most stunning array of dollhouse miniatures! What a striking comparison between the two Birth o…